When it comes to online media, what is your commenting style, and what does your ‘below the line’ activity say about you? Do you mainly (a) debate issues that matter to you, (b) chat with others, (c) make new friends, or (d) troll other users?
Your answers, particularly if you confessed to (d), say a lot about your personality. A recent Canadian study put this question to 1,000 brave volunteers. All were dedicated internet commenters who spent, on average, over an hour a day in various online comments sections. Around 6% of respondents selected trolling as their favourite activity. The study found that these self-confessed trolls tended to score more highly on measures of extraversion and, unsurprisingly, lower on agreeableness (though they did not differ from non-trolls on conscientiousness, neuroticism or openness).
More worryingly, trolls scored higher than non-trolls on measures of the so-called “dark tetrad” of personality: machiavellianism (the tendency to manipulate others), narcissism (excessive self-esteem), sadism (the enjoyment of inflicting pain on others) and psychopathy (characterised by selfishness and a lack of empathy and remorse). Ouch!
This leaves just one mystery: Does “troll” (in this sense) rhyme with “roll” or “doll”. If you’re reading online, answers in the comments please. But play nice.
A fully referenced version of this article is available at benambridge.com. Order Psy-Q by Ben Ambridge (Profile Books, £8.99) for £6.99 at bookshop.theguardian.com
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